Door closers are often attached to doors to assure that the door is closed after use. The American with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) includes guidelines that relate to the manual operating force required to activate door hardware and manually open public doors. Specifically, the ADA requires that a manual operating force of 5 lbs or less is required to open interior and exterior doors.
Current mechanical closer design allows for closers to be set to require manual opening forces measuring between 3.75-4.75 lbs, depending on the application, door weight, and external environment. In some cases, this setting does not provide enough force to assure that the door latches in the closed position.
Some existing systems have various shortcomings relative to certain applications. Accordingly, there remains a need for further contributions in this area of technology.